One of the biggest mistakes retirement plan providers make is assuming that a quiet client is a happy client.
Sometimes they’re just quietly looking for another provider.
Clients rarely wake up one morning and decide to fire their TPA, advisor, recordkeeper, or other plan provider for no reason. Usually, dissatisfaction has been building for months or even years. Emails aren’t returned. Telephone calls aren’t returned. Nobody proactively contacts them. Their longtime relationship manager disappears and nobody bothers to introduce the replacement.
Eventually, somebody else calls.
That’s the dangerous part. Your competition doesn’t need to convince a satisfied client to leave. They just need to find the client you’ve been ignoring.
Providers spend tremendous amounts of money trying to acquire new business while sometimes doing very little to protect the business they already have. They’ll spend thousands on conferences, marketing campaigns, lead generation, and salespeople, but won’t spend 20 minutes calling an existing client to ask how things are going.
That’s backwards.
Client retention isn’t complicated. Communicate. Be responsive. Fix problems. Occasionally contact clients when you aren’t trying to sell them something. Make sure they know who their point of contact is. Most importantly, never give them the feeling that they’re just another plan number in your system.
You don’t have to constantly wine and dine clients. You just have to remind them that you actually care about their business.
Every retirement plan provider has competition. There is always another TPA, advisor, recordkeeper, or provider willing to take your client.
If you take care of your clients, your competition has a difficult sales job.
If you ignore them, you’ve already done most of your competitor’s work for them.